Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch, whose rhetoric has included antisemitic dogwhistles, did not come close to winning the Republican primary on Tuesday.
But he was not swept aside by the electorate, either: Nearly 150,000 Ohio Republicans voted for him, making up 17.5% of voters.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate who had President Donald Trump’s backing, prevailed with 82.5% of the vote.
Putsch, an automotive engineer and political outsider, made headlines during his campaign when he advertised an upcoming “beer hall rally,” which, combined with his last name, evokes the name of the “beer hall putsch,” a failed coup attempt led by Adolf Hitler. He had also made a YouTube video in which he asked the artificial intelligence tool Grok to name Hitler’s “good” qualities.
For Putsch, the strong showing represented a win even if he lost Ramaswamy. He did much better than polls predicted, giving him an unexpectedly strong showing for a fringe candidate without party support or even a major donor base.
“My campaign took 20% of the vote away from a billionaire that was completely backed by the White House and who campaigned for a few years,” Putsch wrote on X. “We raised about $120k and did this in less than 5 months with the GOP actively working against us.”
Putsch is part of an emerging wing of Republicans who oppose Trump, in large part due to their opposition to U.S. support of Israel. Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and other figures who have shared or amplified antisemitic conspiracy theories have spearheaded the movement, which the U.S.-Israel war on Iran has accelerated.
Putsch appeared on Carlson’s show more than a year ago, giving an hour-long interview during which the two men spoke mainly about Putsch’s work in the auto industry. During it, Putsch promoted a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory, saying that the Frankfurt School — a group of early-20th-century Marxist-influenced thinkers who were predominantly Jewish — “infiltrated the art world.” Carlson agreed, “Sure, it’s anti-Western civilization, it’s anti-Christian, so that’s the point.”
Fuentes, meanwhile, has been critical of Putsch’s campaign, saying after the election that he “didn’t endorse it — not because of its ideas, but because of its team,” and added that he didn’t want to be associated with a losing candidate.
But the streamer, who says he loves Hitler and is widely panned as an antisemite, said he believes that other politicians who are ideologically aligned with Putsch but run more “serious” campaigns could make bigger splashes in future elections. He specifically cited James Fishback, who is mounting a long-shot bid for governor in Florida.
“Fishback is a phenomenon. It’s viral, it’s undeniable, it’s all over social media,” Fuentes said about the former investment banker, whose rhetoric on the campaign trail, including invocations of “goyslop,” has included language endemic to the online far right.
Fishback’s campaign for Florida governor has gotten a fair bit more national attention than Putsch’s, though he is polling in single digits ahead of the Aug. 18 Republican primary. Putsch was at 12% in the latest polling from April, which included a third candidate who was later disqualified from the ballot.
Putsch responded to a clip of Fuentes telling him to “rest in piss” and disparaged the two candidates on the ballot in November.
“He wants a Hindu Indian Anchor baby or a Jewish woman Democrat as Governor of Ohio,” Putsch wrote, referring to Ramaswamy and Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee. “Don’t vote for the Christian White man that stood up.”
Putsch has been vociferous in his opposition to Israel. He appeared at America First United on Saturday, an event in Columbus, Ohio, that featured a number of staunchly anti-Israel speakers. Many of the speakers have spread conspiracy theories about Jews, including influencer and former MMA fighter Jake Shields and Michael Rectenwald, founder of the Anti-Zionist America PAC.
Putsch’s campaign had been endorsed by AZAPAC, though the group had removed his name from its website before the primary. Neither AZAPAC nor Putsch’s campaign provided an explanation when asked about the removal last month.
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